Wide area networks, such as the Internet, have created an avenue for easily transferring and obtaining information, including, for example, articles, news, photographs, and stories. The ease of uploading and downloading information has increased the availability of vast amounts of information to users. Indeed, thousands of web sites have emerged that provide images, photographs, videos and the like, which are made available to users, sometimes without cost.
Although the increase in the availability of information is beneficial, the increased availability of easily accessible information has, however, increased the inappropriate use and transfer of materials belonging to others. More specifically, the availability of information has increased the theft of protected materials, such as copyrighted works, for example, photographs and movies. The theft of photographs and other works have caused a loss of licensing revenue to the property owner, and a loss of control over the property.
To counter the rampant theft, copyright owners have attempted to protect their property by a variety of means. For example, digital watermarks have been included in the images in an attempt to alter the display of the illegal copy of the work. A skilled computer user, however, may be able to remove the digital watermarks, and thus, the image can be transferred or made available without the watermark. Other solutions have included ‘locking’ the work via a software solution so that an unauthorized user cannot access the work, or including information that distorts or interferes with the display of the work. Still other solutions include inserting a timing mechanism that prevents the display of the work after a predetermined amount to time. Unfortunately, these solutions require that ever copy of the work include the locking mechanism, additional distorting information, or timing mechanism to be effective. Thus, if an unauthorized, unlocked version of a work is distributed, the work, in total, is not protected.
Although the above solutions provide some measures for countering the rampant theft, they do not address the issue of finding the infringing works, and thereby creating an opportunity for the copyright owner to impede the infringer's illicit activity. If the works can be found and identified, recourse by the copyright owner can be initiated. A need in the industry exists for a system and method of creating an identification modality for protected materials such that unknown files can be systematically and automatically reviewed to ascertain whether they are infringing copies of a protected work.